Blog Post #1 Routman Chapter 3 Share Your Reading Life

                 After reading this chapter the old saying practice what you preach came to mind.  It is so important for our students to see our enthusiasm and passion for reading.  We as teachers need to show by our actions our love for books.  The part of this chapter that really stood out to me is when the author asks her students “Why do you think you are expected to spend so much time reading?”  The students responses were just as I would have thought; it makes you smarter, learn new words, to learn more and so on.  Finally a student answers “because you liked it.”  So many children do not understand the concept of reading for pleasure and develop a love for reading.   Many of my students walk through my classroom doors without the experiences of being read to and having books in their home.   I feel that it is my job to help lay the foundation for my students to love books and reading.   I have to focus on creating a classroom environment that is full of print and literature and provide experiences to teach my students how to select books on their own and “read independently.”  So many times I have heard my students say I can’t read this.  I try my best to teach my students that although they may not be able to read the words, they are readers too.  We talk about how the pictures tell us a story and show them how to conduct their own picture walk.  It is amazing as time goes on to see the progression of how good students get at reading on their own.   I always love to observe my students in the library center reading with their peers. 

                This chapter gives some great examples of how to share our own personal passion for reading with our students.  It is so important for our students to see how important literature is to us.  We must constantly share with our students about our personal book libraries, how we select books to read, and how we read.  We must model for our students how we personally select books to read.  I love the suggestions the author gives about ideas to spark student interest in books such as having children share a favorite book with a partner, creating a class book highlighting favorite books, creating a “top-ten” classroom book list.  Just as our enthusiasm will shine though to our students, so will their peers.  Instead of bringing in a toy to share with the class the children can bring in a favorite book to share with their friends. 

               Lastly the author talks about reading records.  It is so important for us to model how to keep a reading record.  My own children’s teachers have required them to keep reading records.  While I do understand this helps to hold my child and I accountable for reading each day, it takes some of the pleasure out of reading with my child.  I feel that their teachers need to put more emphasis on teaching them how to take on this responsibility themselves or trust that we are taking the time to read with our children.  As a parent it is frustrating to be laying in bed with my child reading with them and having to stop and locate the reading record and a pen to write and sign off on what we are reading.  If we make this shift from making reading a “chore” or requirement, we can show our children the importance of reading because we “want” to for our enjoyment.